Posted on 04/24/2005 1:23:51 AM PDT by nickcarraway
FAMED PORTRAIT OF PLAYWRIGHT IS A FRAUD: ARTWORK IS 200 YEARS TOO YOUNG FOR BARD
LONDON (AP) - One of the best-known portraits of William Shakespeare is a fraud, painted 200 years after the playwright's death, experts at Britain's National Portrait Gallery said Thursday.
Many art authorities had long suspected that the work, known as the Flower portrait, was painted much more recently than the 1609 date on the image.
The work shows Shakespeare gazing out at an angle and wearing a wide white collar. It has been widely reproduced and often is printed on the covers of his plays.
Tarnya Cooper, 16th-century curator at the National Portrait Gallery, said an analysis had uncovered chrome yellow paint from about 1814 embedded deeply in the work.
``We now think the portrait dates back to around 1818 to 1840, exactly the time when there was a resurgence of interest in Shakespeare's plays,'' she said. Shakespeare died in 1616.
British Broadcasting Corp. television first reported the gallery experts' conclusion Thursday.
The gallery said scholars used X-rays, ultraviolet examination, microphotography and paint samples to test the Flower portrait, named for one of its owners, Sir Desmond Flower, who gave it to the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The painting is similar to another image of Shakespeare, the Droeshout engraving, which appeared with the first folio publication of his works in 1623.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Oak Hay... how soon B4 it's up for auction at eBay ??? ;-))
...and that is fetches less than a grilled cheese sandwich.
The also discovered that da Vinci's "Last Supper" is also a fraud since it was painted long after the event.
From what we learned yesterday of the BBC's ability to create news stunts, I would not be suprised if they planted the chrome yellow into the test samples.
This topic was posted , thanks nickcarraway.
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